Morning journal and courier., 1887-03-18
EDITORIAL NOTES.

Jay Gould says 1.-The money I have made has enslaved me-" Jay would feel worse if he was enslaveo by the money he hasn't made, as most of his fellow countrymen are
 Some dispatches from Europe say that the old Emperor William is still sprightly, and according to others he cannot live long. It is, of course, not probable that he has much longer to live.
 Queer bills appear in all the State legisla- lures. In the New York legislature bill has been introduced providing that practic- ing undertakers shall be compelled to under go an examination by board ''consisting of three practical and practising funeral direc tors" as to their qualifications for plying the trade.
 The State of Missouri was dangerous enough to live in before, but now that the five militia regiments of the State have con- cluded to disband because the legislature would not appropriate anything to help maintain them it will be still less attractive to those who seek quiet and peaceful abiding place.
 It really begins to seem as if England were coming out of the long business depression with which she has been afflicted. The ports of the leading English railroads for the last six months show a slight gain in receipts over the previous six months, this being the first half-yearly period since 1883 that has not shown falling off. The improvement is clearly due to an increase in the general trade of the country, as there has been gain both in the amount of freight traffic and of passenger travel, while there has also been some reduction in expenditure through the lower prices of fuel and some other savings. The most notable feature of the showing is the fact that tho whole of the increase in the receipts from passengers which amounted to two and a half per cent was due to the growth of the third-class traffic, as the first class traffic was stationary and the second class declined.
 The movement to hold convention of ne- groes from every southern State to organize them as Independents politically upon the principle of voting only with the party that will agree to advance the industrial interests of the negro is an interesting one. E. A. Randolph, a prominent negro lawyer of Richmond, who is at the head of the movement, says: We have dealt too extensively in politics. Had we paid more attention to business and less to politics, to-day we would be ten thousand
 times better off. In States where we have paid more attention to business than to poli- tics our material wealth is much greater, The time has come when no one party, state
 or national, can ever again claim the solid | colored vote. Mir. Cfevelands administra- ton has put more real value on our eitizen- 1 ship than all of the proceeding administrae | tions since the war. We have large num- | Der of intelligent voters who are ready and willing to cast in their lot with any party in | order to accomplish the mission referred to. The prohihitionists of Michigan are pre- pairing to carry the proposed amendment,
 and they predict that they will carry it by | 25, 900 majority. One of the arguments against it has been that it would destroy
 thousands of dollars worth of property in
 Michigan and that this illegal disturbance of vested rights would defeat the law in the courts To obviate this Senator Wisner has introduced bill providing for compensation from the public funds for any loss resulting | to individuals or corporations "that may
 arise on account of the enacting of any law
 or from any change in the constitution ot
 this State whereby any business, trade or oo